Eiji Tunsinagi

You know those seminars and what-not where they say you can write a book in less than 20 some-odd days? Do those things work or not? I find it hard to believe. Possible, but.......

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Spudley

Well, there is a thing called National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short). That's a month, so about 30 days, but it's not that much more than the 20 days you suggest.

I know there's a lot of authors that take part in it each year (including some from this site), so I'm sure it's possible, though I have to say I don't think I could do it.

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Wyndham

People I have talked to who participated in Novel writing month seemed to feel it was good motivation for getting that first draft finished, but didn't feel that they had a polished manuscript ready for submission. I think it's like anything else. Some people work better with a deadline. Some need some structure (I always write my best work when I'm taking a class.) Some people work better when they set their own pace. You have to think about your particular needs and work habits to know if you would benefit

One warning. There's a lot of money in "teaching" people to write, providing feedback, workshops, software etc. Whenever there is cost involved, you need to choose wisely.

Eiji Tunsinagi

I plan on doing the National Novel Writing Month but thats 30 days.......not, say........14. But how many hours a day would you have to write to do 175 pages in 14 days?

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"nothing is perfect, nothing lasts, and nothing is finished."

"how will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?"

moonandsun

I'm planning on trying NaNoWriMo this november, (and I'm extremely excited) I believe I heard that someone who did NaNoWriMo finished their 50k novel in the first week then did the sequel in the next two weeks or something to the extent. Don't trust me on that, but I think that's what was heard around the watercooler. Anything's possible with enough motivation and coffee.

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Eiji Tunsinagi

I wonder if its bad or not....that I can only finish something when given a month to do it. I think I should be able to finish works at any pace, without a deadline---but, I cant seem to.

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"nothing is perfect, nothing lasts, and nothing is finished."

"how will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?"

Chris

In April, I partcipated in something called "April Fools Challenge" which is like Nano, except you set your own word count goals. I wrote a 70,000 word novel in a month, and it was a great accomplishment for myself. The novel was crap, probably the most shocking piece of writing you'll ever see but I was still proud.

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"...Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
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Airborneguy

I finished my first draft, in notebooks, in three weeks. But I was also able to do most of the writing while watching prisoners in the hospital, so take it as you may. Just because you take forever to write a book does not mean that its going to be good.

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Chris

I'm like that with essays. I can only really get started on them if I have less then a week before the deadline. Pressure is always a great motivation!

__________________
"...Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
Fool! said my Muse to me, look in thy heart and write. - Sir Philip Sidney

Havoc

IMO it is possible to write a book in one month... but it will be crap.
A good story take's time to think about, think about the plot, the characters, the story line, the style. Only that will cost you a month to plan. So to write a book worth reading... your looking at at least 6 months+

Though... all this is opinion

Eiji Tunsinagi

I think its possible. But you've gota know wha your writing before you begin....start to finish. Then you can spend time making it sound much better than you'd expect---from something written in a month.

__________________
"nothing is perfect, nothing lasts, and nothing is finished."

"how will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?"

Selorian

I was at the NaNoWriMo site the other day and was reading some of the posts in the forum. I seen where alot of people have been working out the concepts and structure of the story they were writing for a couple of months now. With all that done at the start it is just basically just choosing the words to tell the story, which could still be time consuming.


Cliff

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gabriella

I participated in Nanowrimo and wrote 100k words. That could have been the novel if I had been smart and planned it out. So it is possible to get the ROUGH DRAFT of the novel in twenty days. To go from first word to last-edited-word in twenty days is damn near impossible -- unless you're willing to sacrifice food, sleep, bathroom breaks, unplug the phone... and say to hell with life.

And even then, I'd bet on the negative.

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moonandsun

If you can't write a thing without any deadlines then why not make some of your own. Figure out a goal and take some paint and write it in big bold letters on your wall. Finish and paint over it. Or grab a buddy who can remind you of your goals constantly.

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"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. "
-Groucho Marx

stiltzkin

So come on own up - who leaves all their essays for their courses for the night before they're in? (and perhaps even the morning they're in if you're feeling particularly saucy)
I for one CANNOT summon up the mental strength to sit and work through a set piece of work until I top the crest leaving a meager amount of time to work with. I can argue with myself all day whether or not I could get better marks if I built upon the work over a few weeks - but I find it so much more exhilarating taunting deadlines. One day it will all go horribly wrong - but for now I passed my first year
But it all boils down to motivation, I find work that I haven't set about on my own accord (i.e. essays and the like) fatiguing.
Someone's gonna have to whip me in to shape for next year or god forbid I may have to do it myself

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